The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – September 30, 2022
A pair of rigs carry out systematic step-out drilling at Ellis Zone in the Difficult Creek prospect area of HighGold Mining's Johnson Tract gold-rich polymetallic project in Alaska.
Click on image for larger Ellis Zone drill map.
With the latest batch of assay results showing the drills are continuing to cut broad layers of high-grade gold at Ellis Zone, it appears that HighGold Mining Inc. is beginning to outline a second gold-rich polymetallic deposit at its Johnson Tract project in Southcentral Alaska.
JT, the first deposit outlined on the 20,942-acre Johnson Tract property, hosts 3.49 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 5.33 grams per metric ton (598,000 ounces) gold, 6 g/t (673,000 oz) silver, 5.21% (400.8 million pounds) zinc, 0.59% (43.1 million lb) copper, and 0.67% (51.5 million lb) lead.
When you calculate the value of all the metals into gold equivalency, this comes to 1.05 million oz of indicated resource averaging 9.39 g/t gold-equivalent.
Situated about 2.5 miles north of JT Deposit, Ellis Zone is shaping up to be part of an emerging second deposit with similar potential.
"While still very early days, it appears we are well on our way to defining a second deposit at Johnson Tract to complement the existing high-grade (plus-1-million-oz) JT Deposit mineral resource that is also open to expansion," said HighGold Mining CEO Darwin Green.
DC21-010, the Ellis Zone discovery hole, cut 6.4 meters averaging 577.9 g/t (18.58 oz/t) gold, 2,023 g/t (65 oz/t) silver, 2.15% zinc, and 0.3% copper.
Earlier this month, HighGold reported assay results from eight follow-up holes drilled at Ellis Zone during the 2022 program. Highlights from the initial batch of results include:
• 14.7 meters averaging 4 g/t gold, 18 g/t silver, 0.27% copper, and 4.18% zinc, including a 5.6-meter subsection averaging 7.8 g/t gold, 36 g/t silver, 0.49% copper, and 9.17% zinc.
• 42.8 meters averaging 3.4 g/t gold, 23 g/t silver, 0.21% copper, and 2.06% zinc in hole DC22-036, including an 18.4-meter subsection averaging 7.29 g/t gold, 50 g/t silver, 0.44% copper, and 3.92% zinc.
• 11.9 meters averaging 21.68 g/t gold, 30 g/t silver, 0.61% copper, and 4.2% zinc in hole DC22-043, including a 3.9-meter subsection averaging 54.2 g/t gold, 71 g/t silver, 1.26% copper, and 8.29 zinc.
"A priority of our 2022 drill program was to follow up on last year's late season discovery at the DC Prospect to determine if the mineralization continued to depth and laterally along strike. This has been confirmed in our initial step-outs which have returned multiple intersections of high-grade mineralization, including subintervals of multi-ounce grade," Green said when this first batch of Ellis Zone results was announced.
The company says the systematic step-out drilling at the Ellis Zone discovery has cut additional strong mineralization to the west and down-dip of the intercept in hole DC22-043.
Highlights from the latest batch of results at Ellis zone include:
• 20.3 meters averaging 1.72 g/t gold, 5.6 g/t silver, 0.14% copper, and 1.46% zinc in hole DC22-044, including a two-meter subsection averaging 8.34 g/t gold, 8.9 g/t silver, 0.41% copper, and 4% zinc.
• 35.2 meters averaging 4.2 g/t gold, 6.1 g/t silver, 0.12% copper, 1.4% lead, and 3.19% zinc in hole DC22-045, including 13.3 meters averaging 7.81 g/t gold, 6.4 g/t silver, 0.23% copper, 1.31% lead, and 2.35% zinc.
• 14.8 meters averaging 10.14 g/t gold, 13.8 g/t silver, 0.28% copper, and 5.97% zinc in hole DC22-045, including 6.8 meters averaging 21.29 g/t gold, 25.1 g/t silver, 0.55% copper, 0.61% lead, and 10.7% zinc.
These new intersections have expanded the footprint of wide, high-grade Ellis Zone mineralization by nearly 50%, and the zone remains open in all directions.
"The Ellis Zone discovery continues to deliver excellent results with some of the strongest and widest intersections to date coming from the western limit of our drilling," said Green. "We are very encouraged by the persistence of the Ellis Zone mineralization along strike and plan to keep stepping out in all directions as we continue expanding the known extents of the zone."
The widespread extent of mineralization exposed by erosion indicates the potential that the Ellis Zone mineralization drilled so far is part of a large and partially blind system linking various DC Prospect zones together over a strike length of 3,000 meters.
So far this year, HighGold has completed 4,935 meters of drilling in 36 holes at Ellis Zone. Assays are pending for 22 of these holes.
The assays that have come back from the lab have defined the Ellis Zone mineralization for roughly 125 meters along strike and from surface to a depth of 100 meters with an average true thickness of 10 to 15 meters. An apparent shallow plunge to the southwest is now defined by thickest and the highest-grade intercepts.
In addition to the drilling at Ellis Zone, the company has completed 3,295 meters of drilling in six holes at Milkbone, which is about 1,000 meters southwest of Ellis along the longer DC Prospect trend; one hole at the Kona prospect, which lies about 2,500 meters west of Ellis; and four holes at the JT Deposit.
By the end of October, HighGold plans to complete another 2,000 to 3,000 meters of drilling focused on expanding Ellis Zone and testing important resource growth targets at JT Deposit.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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